Re: Marksmanship

Roger Books wrote:
> 
> On 13-Jul-99 at 11:20, Sean Bayan Schoonmaker (schoon@aimnet.com)
wrote:
> > >"I know several guys who can shoot tacks
> > >off of targets at 50m. Hitting a man sized target out to 400m isn't
> > >that hard"
> > >
> > >Yes, but the tacks rarely, if ever, shoot back -- which makes all
the
> > >difference in the world.
> >
> > Tacks also don't move, nor do they have the annoying habbit of
hiding from
> > you ;-)
> 
> Tacks are easy, I could (back when I was hunting) have done the 50m
tack
> thing and nobody would have been terribly impressed.	The fact that I
> was about 50% on a running squirrel at 15-20meters was impressive, if
> that gives you a shooting indication.  400 meters if they know you are
> there would make it extremely difficult to hit anything even if they
> weren't shooting back.

There was a very interesting article on the reaction of people to stress
and killing on the radio here a while back, worth reading.  Under enough
stress, _everything_ involving complex motor skills becomes much much
more difficult.   

As Clauswitz said, (approximately) "In war everything is simple, but
those simple things are so very complex."

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s23921.htm

-- 
Barry Cadwgan ( BCADWGAN@FL.NET.AU )
http://www.users.fl.net.au/~bcadwgan/homepage.htm
"The end does not justify the means.  
 The end is the sum of the means,
 as the road travelled determines the destination." 
Valijon Starbringer (Hellflower Trilogy, Eluki bes Shahar)